Weather & climate Serengeti National Park : Serengeti national park dubbed as a home to the Great migration is a World Heritage Site teeming with wildlife including over 4000 lions, 1000 leopards, 550 cheetahs and over 500 birds species inhabiting in the endless plains of the park.
Serengeti national park is one of the most parks in Africa offering the Classic African Scenery and Tanzania’s oldest park in Tanzania, the park is also the largest park in Tanzania covering an area of 14,763 square kilometers. Serengeti national park is contiguous with Kenyan Masai Mara national reserve extending almost to Lake Victoria.
Serengeti national park is a vast ecosystem with many seasonal differences in weather and climate, the park experiences generally cool and dry season from May to August, a dry and warmer season in September and October. The wetter and hot season in Serengeti national park is experienced from November to April.
Temperatures in Serengeti national park
Though it is perceived that Africa is a very hot place, Serengeti national park is actually very pleasant and moderate and it seldom gets uncomfortably hot as temperatures drop during the night and early mornings.
The maximum and minimum temperatures in Serengeti national park vary with the seasons, the wet season is the warmest period in the park. The Seronera area– the famous best wildlife viewing area in the park rarely exceeds 37 °C on a hot afternoon in the rainy season and hardly ever drops below 13 °C on a cold early morning in the dry season.
In Serengeti national park, the average maximum daily temperature changes with elevations, near the crater highlands temperatures range from 15°C to about 30°C near Lake Victoria. Because of the altitude, Serengeti national park is a cool island in a much warmer region.
Rainfall periods in Serengeti national park
Serengeti national park experiences 2 rainy periods, the short rains are from November to December which is the first to break the grip of the dry season, in this period the rains are unpredictable and are unlikely to interfere with your Tanzania wildlife safari. The short rains are followed by long rains in the period from March to May which are the highest rainfall months. It seldom rains for the entire day, however you are advised to remember that it rains on most days. As a result, the season is often dubbed as the “GREEN SEASON”.
Sometimes the rains fuse into one extended period particularly in the north, or the short rains may fail entirely most especially in the southeast of the Serengeti national park.
Rainfall Gradient
In Serengeti national park, there is a rainfall gradient from the dry southeast plains (400 mm per year) to the much wetter northwest near the Kenyan Border and the Masai Mara (up to 1,200 mm per year). The low rainfall on the Serengeti plains is caused by the rain shadow of the Ngorongoro Crater Area and the Meru- Kilimanjaro Mountain range. Prevailing South – Easterly winds carrying moisture off the Indian Ocean are forced to raise over these highlands, as the air cools, the moisture condenses and the water in the air rains out.
However, the shifting winds can carry moisture back inland from Lake Victoria, counteracting this effect and inducing this rainfall gradient.
SERENGETI CLIMATE CHARTS
MONTH TO MONTH AVERAGE MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM TEMPERATURES
| JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC | |
| Max °C | 29 | 29 | 29 | 28 | 27 | 26 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 |
| Min °C | 26 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 16 |
MONTH TO MONTH AVERAGE RAINFALL IN MM
| JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC |
| 80 100 135 160 90 25 15 30 60 70 115 105 |
